LibraryLit & The Successive Fraction Search

I think the topic I chose to search in the beginning searches was a little complicated, even though it seemed straightforward. After some thought, I decided I was going to investigate after-school youth programs and their impact on the community.

I wanted to start with a database I knew a little about and use the most confusing of all the searches to make it a bit easier on myself. (Being confused on two topics would just make a mess of the whole thing!) Using LibraryLit, I did a successive fraction search.

I think that youth programs would get the most information back, so I built the search around it, using some nested Boolean techniques.

Search 1: (youth services) AND (after-school programs) AND (community)

No results. Hmm. It is possibly the way everything is spelled. I decide to change up the search in order to possibly get more results. I decide to leave out “community” to see if changing it will give me back anymore results.

Search 2: (youth OR young adult AND services) AND (programs)

522 Results! Ok, I am obviously on the right track. Some of the items I retrieved are actually useable, but I want to narrow it down further, so I try yet another search. I also limit the type of articles that I will get back – so only peer-reviewed articles will be included going forward.

Search 3: (youth OR young adult AND services) AND (programs) AND (impact)

No results. Using a progressively unique term at the end is truly weeding out those articles that are applicable! I am going to go back to “community” and see if this works here.

Search 4: (youth OR young adult AND services) AND (programs) AND (community OR town).

43 Records. Now we are getting somewhere. Let’s get more specific.

Search 5: (youth OR young adult AND services) AND (programs) AND (community OR town) AND (literacy) – This search really gets to the heart of what I want to know about.

Success! 6 totally useable and applicable records were found; 6 records are certainly something I can handle. Six is much better than 522, that is for certain!

Here is the article:

Diaz, R. (2009). After School Mobile Literacy: Serving Youth in Underserved Neighborhoods. Teacher Librarian, 36(3), 37-8. Retrieved December 2, 2009, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.